Philippine Bar Examination - Grading System - Bar Topnotchers

Bar topnotchers are bar examinees who garnered the highest bar exam grades in a particular year. Every year, the Supreme Court releases the bar top ten list. The list contains the names of bar examinees who obtained the ten highest grades. It is possible for more than ten examinees to place in the top ten because numerical ties in the computation of grades usually occur.

From 1913 to 2012, schools which have produced bar topnotchers (1st placers) are as follows:

• University of the Philippines College of Law - forty-six (46) bar topnotchers
• Ateneo de Manila Law School - twenty-one (21) bar topnotchers
• San Beda College of Law - seven (7) bar topnotchers
• Philippine Law School - five (5) bar topnotchers
• Far Eastern University Institute of Law - four (4) bar topnotchers
• University of Manila College of Law - four (4) bar topnotchers
• University of Santo Tomas Faculty of Civil Law - three (3) bar topnotchers
• University of the Cordilleras (formerly Baguio Colleges Foundation) College of Law - two (2) bar topnotchers
• Manila Law College Foundation (formerly Escuela de Derecho de Manila) - one (1) bar topnotcher
• Manuel L. Quezon University College of Law - one (1) bar topnotcher
• Holy Name University (formerly Divine Word College of Tagbilaran) - one (1) bar topnotcher
• University of the East College of Law - one (1) bar topnotcher
• San Sebastian College - Recoletos - one (1) bar topnotcher

Two bar examinees topped the bar exams without officially graduating from any Philippine law school:

• Jose W. Diokno - former Senator of the Philippines; 1st placer, 1945 bar exams. Mr. Diokno, who tied for Number One with Mr. Jovito Salonga in the 1945 Bar Exams, would have graduated from the University of Santo Tomas had not World War II supervened. Mr. Diokno's success in the bar exams is further underscored by the fact that he was also under-age and that he also placed number 1 in the 1940 CPA Board exams which he took while in law school, after graduating summa cum laude from then De La Salle College at the age of 17. This double number 1 feat may never be paralleled. The closest may have been Cesar L. Villanueva (from the Ateneo Law School) who placed second in the 1981 Bar Exams and sixth place in the 1982 CPA Board Exams.
• Carolina C. Griño-Aquino - former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court; 1st placer, 1950 bar exams. Ms. Aquino (who later became the wife of Mr. Ramon Aquino, 6th placer in 1939 Bar Exams) was a special student of the UP College of Law, where she finished her last two years of law school having taken her first two years of law school at the Colegio de San Agustin in Iloilo. Ms. Aquino was advised to take her last two years of law school in UP by Colegio de San Agustin Law Dean Felipe Ysmael. Coincidentally, Mr. Ysmael (a UP Law graduate himself) placed number 1 in the 1917 Bar Exams. Since Ms. Aquino only took her last two years of law at UP, she can't be certified as an official UP law graduate. Both spouses Aquino (in addition to being topnotchers) also served as Justices of the Supreme Court.

In the past, non-law school graduates were allowed to take the bar. However, the Revised Rules of Court and Supreme Court Circulars allow Filipino graduates of Philippine law schools (and subject to certain conditions, Filipino graduates of foreign law schools) to take the bar, necessarily excluding non-law graduates and foreigners who have law degrees from taking part in the exercise.

While not a guarantee for topping the bar, academic excellence in law school is a good indicator of an examinee's fortune in the bar exams. Ateneo Law School's only summa cum laude graduate, Claudio Teehankee, placed number one in the 1940 Bar Exams. It is worth noting that Teehankee's son, Manuel Antonio, followed in his footsteps by graduating at the top of his Ateneo Law School class (albeit, not as summa cum laude) and placing first in the 1983 bar exams. Claudio's nephew, Enrique (a cum laude graduate from the UP College of Law), also placed number one in the 1976 bar exams. Claudio eventually became Supreme Court Chief Justice, Manuel was formerly Department of Justice Undersecretary and Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the World Trade Organization in Geneva, Switzerland while Enrique is a successful private practitioner.

This father-son-nephew feat has yet to (and, perhaps, may never) be equalled in the annals of Philippine Bar. For siblings, the closest is when Manuel B. Zamora, Jr. placed third in the 1961 Bar Exams and younger brother Ronaldo placed first in the 1969 Bar Exams.

The UST Faculty of Civil Law's sole summa cum laude graduate, Roberto B. Concepcion, placed first in the 1924 Bar Exams. He later served as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

The San Beda College of Law's sole magna cum laude graduate, Florenz Regalado, ranked 1st in the 1954 Bar exams with a mark of 96.70%. The record is the highest average in the Philippine Bar Examinations, to date. Regalado later served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.

The UP College of Law (which has yet to produce a summa cum laude graduate) had five of its seventeen magna cum laude graduates (the College of Law first conferred the honor to Rafael Dinglasan in 1925 and, to date, last conferred the same honor to Dionne Marie Sanchez in 2007) place number one in their respective bar exams: Rafael Dinglasan in 1925, Lorenzo Sumulong in 1929, Deogracias Eufemio in 1962, Roberto San Jose in 1966 and Ronaldo Zamora in 1969. Dinglasan became a Judge of the Court of First Instance of Manila, Sumulong became Senator of the Republic and a renowned statesman, Eufemio and San Jose established their respective successful private law practices while Zamora became Executive Secretary to then President Joseph Estrada and is currently the Minority Leader in the House of Representatives.